Develop Your Business Skills through Crowdfunding

Posted: Fri, 26 July 2013 by Cara

We’ve previously highlighted the many benefits that crowdfunding can provide for your business, but now we want to focus on how crowdfunding can also develop you and your business skills. Not only will improved skills benefit your business, but it will also promote personal development and give you an edge in your next project! Take a look at some of the key business skills that crowfunding can help develop;

Pitching

We help project owners create a great pitch for their project which hooks backers in and clearly demonstrates the project impact. We also encourage including a short video, which will develop pitching skills. The video length is an important factor - if you can’t pitch your key business benefit in a minute, you don’t understand your business well enough (which is a valuable learning curve in itself). Promotion is also key to developing methods of communicating your message to different audiences, without bombarding people with the same information. Crowdfunding can help you learn how to do this effectively.

Social Media

Chances are you use social media already for your business, but are you using it effectively? We actively encourage our crowdfunders to use a wider range of platforms such as Kiltr and Pinterest, in order to develop a stronger following. With social media guru Michelle Rodger heading up the Bloom team, you’re also in a great position to ask questions and get advice from the experts. Learn how to engage your audience, pick up tips such as the most popular days and times, and above all, increase your brand awareness!

Networking

If you’re a small business owner, you might be nervous about talking to others about your business at such an early stage. Crowdfunding allows you to talk about something tangible, ask for specific advice, and ask for other entrepreneurs to support you. That gives you a much stronger introduction when networking, and you might find some backers, customers or even a business partner. You can also network with the strong Bloom community and take advantage of our contacts.

Project Management

Running a crowdfunding campaign requires a lot of effort and planning. Going through the process of building, launching and running your campaign will teach you a lot about the different skills needed at different points in a project. You can use our successful crowdfunders as examples, or better yet, get in touch with them for some advice. We’ll also guide you and prompt you, so that you a) have the best chance of crowdfunding success and b) you understand the project life cycle. Remember though, your project shouldn’t end when your campaign does – keep in touch with your crowdfunding community. We can help push your updates out so make sure to keep us in the loop too.

That’s just a few of the skills you can develop if you work hard on your campaign, and take our suggestions on board. The great thing is, even if you don’t make your target, you’ll have a much better idea of what your skills are, what you need to improve and how to build your business. Sold? Then start your crowdfunding project today.